Eulogy, for Dad

This is the eulogy I delivered at my Father's Interment Service:

My father was a man of deep faith. We celebrated that in his Funeral Mass yesterday and will celebrate it again with the Interment Service we are about to do here. However, before that I wanted to talk about my memories of Dad.

On a Saturday morning, my Dad would find me and say, “Let’s go run some errands.” I knew that many times that would also include a stop for breakfast at the Chuck Wagon on Route 40 or, if it was later, a stop for lunch at Fiddles underneath the bridge in Brownsville, PA.

We’d get in the car and run the errands in town. Since this was the prehistoric time before ATM machines, often it meant a stop at the bank, or the Post Office, or the Dry Cleaners. Wherever Dad went he knew everyone and had a bright “good morning” for all. Then we’d start on the back roads for the errands out of town. My Dad knew every road in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

As I got older and found out more about my family history I discovered that my grandfather had not always been there for my Dad. My grandparent’s marriage had not been happy. Family was very important to Dad and that he considered being a father his most important job. I began to understand that this was due to the difficulties that he had experienced as a child. Being an only child, my Mother’s large family basically adopted him. While no one would ever accuse father of being a musician, he was at every school concert where Janice, my sister, and I performed. That was what a father did.

My Dad loved to travel. In the Army he was stationed in West Berlin, Germany. While there he took advantage of opportunities to visit other parts of Europe, including visiting the small town in Sicily where the Gennaula family had originated. He would always tell the story how he was instructed to eat at no one’s house, for if he ate at one and not another it would have started a family war.

Growing up I knew my Dad truly loved my mom, Suzanne. However, my Mom for the most part did not enjoy travelling as much as he did. This led to a period in my preteen years where I would take Father and Son Trips with Dad. I would act as his navigator and tell him where to turn and such. Later they would come to visit me wherever I lived, whether it was New York State, North Carolina, Illinois, or Minnesota. They also visited Janice, her husband Drew, and later their children, whether they lived in Washington DC or Germany. Dad truly loved being a grandfather to Tony, Rachel, Tommy, and John.

After 57 years of marriage, my Mom died. My Dad had cared for her as she had become increasingly frail. Afterward, Dad bought a new car and started travelling to see family and friends. On his travels he visited with Mary Lou and her daughter Dru Anne, in Gettysburg. My Dad had known Ray, Mary Lou’s first husband. Together, along with Mary Lou’s brother-in-law, they had helped Dad finish our basement family room. When my Dad told me that he and Mary Lou were serious and were planning on getting married my first thought was “My Dad is going to marry my CCD Teacher.” Janice, my wife Wendy, and I and our children were so happy to have Mary Lou and Dru Anne join our family. Thank you for being with Dad as he faced these last years of his life.

I have so many memories of my father. What I will remember most however, is my Dad’s smile--his contagious smile, as my cousin Jane recently said. It was a smile that knew of the difficulties of life and how to move pass them through a kind word or just that simple smile. I love you, Dad. Rest in Peace.